


Shaking Breath

by I_can_only_imagine



Category: DCU (Comics), Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, No Physical Fighting, Science Test Gone Wrong, Task Force X Mentioned, it's extremely temporary, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26279716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/pseuds/I_can_only_imagine
Summary: Amanda Waller, four bats and a Kryptonian clone have been working to create a new device for task Force X to use in the case of a Kryptonian going rogue. said device needs to be tested.Little do they know, Lex Luthor caught wind of the test, and has decided to attempt to get rid of Superman's second son once and for all.
Relationships: Chris Kent & Clark Kent, Chris Kent & The Superfam
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Shaking Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Quick note, in this Chris was saved from the Phantom Zone by an expedition lead by Clark six months after entering it.

"Is it done?" The occupants of the lab all turned to face the Kryptonians who had just entered the lab from the elevator. Superman, the very man who had spoken, stood with his arms crossed and his young second son Nightwing closely tucked into his side imitating his posture. Supergirl and Power Girl both made their way to lean on the wall near the elevator while Superboy went to greet his friend.

Amanda Waller was the one to answer Superman, “It was just finished this morning.”

“Then testing is good to go?” Superboy asked, moving to his station at the monitors beside Red Robin.

"It doesn't have to be tested," Batman said. "We know it will work."

"Always better safe than sorry," Superman said. "It would be better for us to test it and for it to work than for us not to test it and be left with a useless device when it’s needed most.”

“I’m still not sure about this,” Batman said. “Ms. Waller already has Task Force X for this kind of thing.”

“As I said, better safe than sorry,” Superman nodded.

“And it will be safe to have one hand,” Supergirl said. “If we never have to use it, then great, but if we do, it will save a lot of lives.”

“You say that now, you won’t be saying it when you’re the one in there,” Waller said.”

“ _ If _ ,” Power Girl corrected. “We never plan on any of us going rogue. It’s only a possibility we have to be cautious of.”

“I meant testing it,” Waller said. “Figured she's tough as nails and would be up to the task.”

Kara shifted her weight from one foot to the other, avoiding facing Waller.

“Now that’s a surprise,” Waller said dryly, “Well then, which one of you is getting in there? Superboy can’t do it, and Supergirl apparently isn’t up to the task.”

“None of us want to do it,” Kara said, defensive instincts flaring. “Would you want to be trapped in there breathing something that makes you so vulnerable?”

“I would if it meant the world would be a safer place for it,” Waller said. “Now. Which one of you is going in?”

"I'll do it."

Everyone whipped around in varying degrees of shock and horror to the boy that had spoken.

Nightwing, Chris, shrunk under their gaze, but kept his eyes on his adoptive father. Looking up at him with an unreadable expression

"Absolutely not," Clark said once he was over his shock.

"Papa, I'll be fine-"

"I said no."

"Just hear me out-"

"Christopher Kent," Clark cut him off again, settling him with a serious look. "I refuse to allow this to be tested on a teenager."

"You refuse to let it be tested on me," Chris corrected. "But Papa, I'm the only one it makes sense to be tested on."

Waller gained an interested expression for the first time since the Kryptonians had walked in, "And why is that?"

"Because out of all of us, it needs to work on me," Chris said. He didn’t look at her, but it was clear to anyone in the room that he meant it. “Papa, Kara, Kon, and Karen are unlikely to go rogue. They've been raised in positive environments, always fighting for what's good and right. I was born in the Phantom Zone as a member of the house of Zod. I'm the most likely here to lose sight of what we believe in."

"You would never-" Clark started, but was cut off when Chris shook his head.

"It's okay. I know what you guys saw when you visited the other timelines. I was a Zod. I may be a Kent now, but that doesn't mean I can't be changed. Brain washing, amnesia, anything could happen to make me change and I would be the easiest target. We need to be sure Task Force X, or the bats, or you guys, could take me down if needed."

There was a heavy pause with all eyes on him. Everyone knew he was right, but no one wanted to admit it. None of the four bats present nor the supers wanted to remember what they had seen in the other timeline. The dirty blond haired, brown eyed boy in front of them being bathed in darkness with black hair and gold eyes that made him look like his parents in a sickening way.

But that didn't stop that reality from existing. Their disbelief that the sunny boy they all knew had the possibility to become so lost didn't stop the possibility from being real.

Clark finally sighed, and pulled his son into a tight hug against his chest, burying his nose in the boy's hair, "Fine. You can test it. But we won't ever need it for you, I know we won’t. Tell us the second you feel any pain or get even the slightest bit sacred."

"I will," Chris promised, pulling back enough to smile up at him. "I'll be okay. everything is being controlled and monitored. And anyways, I know I'll always be safe with you here."

"You are safe," Clark confirmed, just as he did every time Chris had his doubts since the moment they got him. He had had to repeat the phrase many times since they got him out of the Phantom Zone. He would willingly repeat it for the rest of his life if it helped to put his son at ease.

"I'm safe," Chris repeated one last time before fully pulling away. "It's going to be okay."

An arm suddenly slung around his neck, pulling him down into Kon's chest. He laughed a little at his older brother, and attempted to bat at his hand while he messed up his hair.

"You know you don't have to keep proving how stupidly brave you are, right?" Kon said. "Phantom Zone wasn't enough. You just have to go and prove you're up to any challenge. You're making the rest of us seem lame here!"

"I'll keep that in mind," Chris laughed.

Without giving Clark or the rest of his family any more time to worry, Chris went to the cylinder chamber, stepping in when Waller opened the door for him.

The chamber looked to be made of normal glass and metal, but in reality was made of a material not even the Kryptonians could break through, and reinforced by Kryptonite in the center in case they managed to break through the first few layers. It was designed to hold a rogue Kryptonian for as long as needed with no escape and was perfect for this very test.

"It's going to feel like it's burning your lungs," Waller warned. "It won't be a pleasant experience."

"I didn't expect it to be," Chris smiled. 

Waller nodded and closed the chamber door. The hiss and clicks of the locks echoed through the room and the seams seemingly disappeared. Chris stood still in the center, stance relaxed but prepared. With his nod, Batman, Oracle, Red Robin and Kon all flipped their switches.

Nothing happened for a second, but Chris remained prepared. A hiss sounded as the floor of the chamber sunk by just a half a centimeter and the ceiling did the same to reveal thin vents that ran all along the new openings.

Glowing green gas leaked in from them, slowly spreading across the ceiling and floor. Chris only spared the gas a glance before his eyes returned to his father's through the glass.

The gas spread, following the movement of air in the chamber, naturally drawn to where Chris stood taking deep breaths to speed up the process.

On his first inhale of the gas Chris started to choke, one hand flying to his neck while the other covered his mouth and nose involuntarily.

"Christopher, fighting back will only make it hurt," Waller said through an intercom Chris couldn't locate with his already wavering mind.

It was a struggle, but he forced his hands away, instead wrapping his arms around his chest to hold himself.

"Chris?" Clark said, worry already filling his voice to the brim.

"I'm okay," Chris managed to say. He could hear the way his voice echoed from the intercom in the lab but it was heavily muffled by the glass. He met his father's eyes again and repeated, "I'm okay."

Clark looked unsure but put his hand back down anyways.

Chris bit the bullet and took as deep a breath as he could manage, only choking slightly as the forign gas entered his lungs. He let his breath back out, and was consciously aware of the oxygen in him being quickly replaced by the kryptonite gas that was already weakening him. He could feel his ice breath and laser vision were the first the gas took from him, quickly followed by flight and everything else but strength.

Unlike the others, strength slowly seeped out of him instead of leaving in an instant. Still, it was gone quickly until he had the strength of a normal human fifteen year old.

Alarm only set in when the burn in his chest intensified and his strength lessened even more than that of a human.

He started to shake as the glowing green filled his vision. A frantic look around him said the chamber was thinly filled with the gas. He could still see through it to outside the chamber, but it was gradually becoming more opaque. It felt as if all oxygen was gone from his lungs, and the gas was the only thing he was breathing.

His shaking grew so bad he had to brace both hands against the glass to his side, using the little strength he had left to hold himself up. His breaths became frantic as his eyes uselessly searched the chamber for an escape.

Belatedly he remembered what his father had instructed him to do if he got scared or if it started to hurt, and shouted, "Okay I'm done! I don't want to do this anymore! Let me out!"

Outside the chamber, Clark watched his son's expression grow panicked and heard it coupled with his shouts over the intercom.

"Let him out!" he yelled to the group who held control over the chamber.

"We're trying," Red Robin said. "Something is wrong.”

"What does that mean?" Clark snapped.

"Someone override the commands," Batman said. "They hacked into the system somehow. They won't let us access the locks. or vents."

"How could someone hack into the system? We have a more secure system than the pentagon, you said so yourself when Oracle coded it!"

"It's Luthor," Red Robin said, his own voice turning panicked. He used one hand to push off his cowl while he typed at near speedster speeds with the other. His eyes were wide, and for the first time, Clark was sure it was fear he was seeing on a bat. "He found out about the project somehow. He hacked into the system."

"Shit," Oracle cursed, causing Clark's eyes to flicker to where she was stationed in front of several monitors.

"Report!" Batman ordered.

"Luthor got into the gas chambers. It's not just the kryptonite gas filling in there."

"What else is he filtering into the chamber?"

"A normal smoke that was colored green so we wouldn’t notice. He's trying to choke out the oxygen in the chamber."

Clark was sure his heart would bruise his ribs from how hard it was beating. A soft thud returned his undivided attention to his son in the chamber. Chris had seen their panic, and it had clearly only worsened his own as he started to frantically, weakly hit the glass while on his knees. Tears were streaking down his face that was gradually paleing.

A hundredth of a second passed, and Clark found himself hitting the glass with his full strength behind each punch. He knew in the small, still rational part of his brain that he wouldn't even make a dent, but he kept trying. Kara and Karen joined him. One kryptonian couldn't break through the material, but maybe three could. He was sure Kon would have joined their desperate attempts if it hadn't been busy making his own desperate attempts through code at regaining control of the server.

It took him a few seconds to realize the shrill loudness wasn't coming from his own head, but from the intercoms that were still projecting Chris's voice out to them. He was screaming unlike Clark had ever heard him do before. Screaming and crying and calling "Papa'' over and over again. The loud hits against the glass by the three kryptonians on the outside could be heard over the intercom by anyone else in the room, but only four of them outside the chamber could hear Chris's frantically beating heart under all the commotion.

"It's going to be okay baby!" Clark yelled. He tried to make his expression reassuring, but Chris gave no reaction. He just continued to scream and cry, staring brokenly up at him from behind the glass he couldn't break through.

"He can't hear you," an oh so familiar voice said from the intercoms.

"Luthor! If you don't stop this now nothing will stop me from killing you!" Karen yelled to Clark's right.

Luthor gave no response besides quickening the stream or colored smoke and kryptonite gas into the chamber. The color of green became so opaque that Clark's couldn't see Chris's face anymore. All he could see was his boy's hands pressed against the glass, bleeding and raw from hitting it so hard so many times.

Chris's screams came to a sudden stop. His hands slipped from the glass, leaving blood smeared from where they had been. Dirty blonde hair, a shoulder, and half of Chris's blue clad arm became visible from where he had slumped over between where Clark and Kara were hitting the glass still.

Clark heard himself screaming, but had no control over it.

He should have listened to his instincts. He shouldn't have let Chris go in there. He should have listened to Bruce and not have done a test at all. Not have let anyone in there.

“We're back online!" he faintly heard Red Robin shout. Four switches were flipped before Luthor could regain control and the chamber hissed and clicked for a minute as the gas drained out through the bottom and top. As the gas drained away and was replaced again by oxygen, Chris became visible again. A mess of tears, sweat, and snot covered his face. He was slumped bonelessly against the glass, his eyes closed and head pressed against it in a way that awkwardly bent his neck.

When the gas was completely gone from the chamber it unlocked with one final click.

Clark wasted no time throwing the chamber door open, arms ready to catch him when Chris fell forward towards him.

"He's not breathing," Clark yelled. He was shaking so badly he could see the way it jostled his son. He laid him on the floor, but before he could start the CPR he usually would in this situation, Kara caught him.

"He's weaker than a human right now," she said. "A Kryptonian performing CPR would only hurt him worse.

"I've got it," Stephine gently pushed Clark away and started CPR. Clark heard two of Chris's ribs crack under the bat's force as she expertly resuscitated him. Minutes passed like hours where Clark lost small lapses of time. Kon had at some point pressed himself into Clark's side now on his knees on the ground too. He was shaking. They both were. From the corner of his eye he could see Kara and Karen doing the same while standing, hugging onto one another.

Like breaking through a water's surface while being under for too long, Chris's loud gasp was the best sound he was sure he would ever hear. his son choked a few times, his heart beat that of a hummingbird, but he soon calmed into ragged breaths.

Clark quickly scooped his son up into his arms and held him so close he was sure he would never be able to let go.

"Papa," Chris was barely able to rasp a whisper against Clark's chest.

"I'm right here," Clark promised. He was unashamed of the tears that filled his voice. "I'm right here baby. It's okay. You're okay."

The fingers of his right hand thread through his boy's hair while he leaned his own head on Kon's where it rested on his shoulder. Kon had one arm still wrapped around Clark, but the other now wrapped around Chris, palm pressed to the side of his belly so he could feel the rise and fall of breath. Karen and Kara had joined them on the ground in front of Clark, Karen's hand holding Chris's and one of Kara's circled one of his ankles.

Bruce stood on Clark's unoccupied side holding his shoulder in a comfort just as steady as Chris's now even breathing.

When Clark could tear his eyes away from his son to everyone else in the room, all he could see was fear and regret mixed evenly with relife. They were all thinking about the same things. Every time before this when Luthor had tried to kill Chris had been much less direct and less successful. But he had been getting closer with every attempt to off Clark's second son. He had almost won this time.

Never again.

Chris was breathing, and Clark was never going to let him stop again.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr at @what-if-i-imagine where I post clips from WIPS every Wednesday and accept asks, requests and prompts!  
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated, thank you for reading!


End file.
